An Intelligence Report Explains Why The Russian Invasion Started After The Winter Olympics In Beijing Closed

JAKARTA - Just four days after China extinguished the flames of its Winter Olympics in Beijing last February 20, President Vladimir Putin began his full-scale military operation in Ukraine. A mere coincidence?

The New York Times, Thursday, March 3, published an article on Western intelligence reports. In the report, senior Chinese officials said he told senior Russian officials in early February to put off plans to attack Ukraine at least before the Winter Olympics in Beijing ended.

Some analyzes suggest that senior Chinese officials had some degree of direct knowledge of Russia's war plans or intentions even before the invasion began.

President Putin meets with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing on February 4 before the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Moscow and Beijing issued a 5,000-word statement at the time declaring their partnership “no boundaries,” denouncing NATO's expansion and insisting they would build a new global order with true “democracy.”

Intelligence information about exchanges between Chinese and Russian officials is classified. It was collected by Western intelligence services and deemed credible by officials. Senior officials in the United States and allied governments spread it as they discussed when Putin might attack Ukraine.

However, Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, refuted that analysis.

“These claims are baseless speculation, and are meant to be blamed. -displace and tarnish China," he said.

China has always chosen different steps from other countries when it saw Russia's invasion of Ukraine. For example, when the United States (US) and a number of its allied countries agreed to remove Russia's membership from the international interbank payment system, namely the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), China did not want to join in.

He will continue to carry out all trade transactions between China and Russia as usual.

"China and Russia will continue normal trade cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect and mutual benefit," said Chinese Foreign Ministry (MFA) spokesman Wang Wenbin.

Recent developments in Ukraine, Russian troops have managed to capture the country's first major city, Kherson. Its military forces continued to advance across the country, besieging other cities - including Kharkiv, the country's second largest city - with the main goal of course the capital, Kyiv.

Russian artillery and rocket fire have cut off electricity, medicine, water and heat to many Ukrainian communities, and turned more and more offices, homes, businesses and vehicles into burning rubble.